AND FlRDAUSrS— //.4L/£:t7r/C^ 177 



— to which halting and involved translation we at least neither 

 bow laurels nor doff hats. 



The Halieutica is divided into five books. The first two 

 treat of the natural history of fishes, the other three of the art 

 of fishing. Despite this proportion of space, fish rather than 

 fishermen are the heroes of the scenes. The work displays 

 considerable knowledge of zoology, coupled with absurd fables, 

 which are adduced as grave matters of fact. 



In the fulness with which he enumerates the various kinds 

 of fish, and methods of fishing, the technique, the weapons, 

 the materials appropriate to each, Oppian stands pre-eminent 

 among our authors. Nor need we wonder at this fullness of 

 treatment. He was wedded heart and soul to all pertaining 

 to fish, or fishing, which he calls the " lovely art." 



The kinds of fish mentioned by this " poeta doctissimus " 1 

 number, according to Bishop Hieronymus, one hundred and fifty- 

 three. This figure is verified by Ritter, who adds that " Pliny's 

 long list contains only twenty- three more, i.e. one hundred and 

 seventy-six in all," a total which hardly warrants the naturalist's 

 triumphal outburst, " In the sea and in the ocean, vast as it is, 

 there exists by Hercules ! nothing that is unknown to us, 

 and a truly marvellous feat it is that we are best acquainted 

 with those things which Nature has concealed in the deep." 2 



From the only English translation of the Halieutica (made 

 in 1722 by Diaper and Jones, Fellows of Balliol) I take a few 

 passages illustrating the character and methods of Oppianic 

 fishing. 3 



The latter at once arrest our attention by their modernity. 

 They are practically ours. Apostolides in his work describing 

 fishing in modern Greece states that " les quatre engins 



1 " De quibus Oppianus Cilix est, poeta doctissimus, 153 esse genera 

 piscium, quce omnia capta sunt ab Apostolis, et nihil remansit incaptum, dum 

 et nobiles et ignobiles, divites et pauperes, et omne genus hominum de mari 

 hujus saeculi extrahitur ad salutem." Comment, in Ezechiel. Cf. Ritter, 

 op. cii., p. 376. 



- N. H.. XXXII. 53. 



* The great objection to this translation, owing probably to the difficulty 

 of expressing — certainly of compressing — the " intractable " subject matter 

 in the rhymed verse adopted by the translators, is its weary verbiage : for 

 instance, one passage of three lines in the translation needs twelve, and another 

 of nine needs thirty! Diaper was the author of Nereides, or Sea-Eclogues. 



